Journalist Report – December 22nd

Crew 201 Journalist Report – 22DEC2018

The Martian Chronicles

[SOL 7] – The Far Side of the Moons

We are explorers! We humans have broken every barrier we’ve
encountered through our existence. We know no boundaries to explore a little bit more and learn about our universe. We have walked through the meadows, sailed to remote islands, arrived at new continents and re-discover them; all of this to look to the stars and wonder what is there for us to reach. Exploration is part of us and pushes us forward to go where no one has (boldly) gone before. We aim to open our minds to what we think we know and go a step further to explore even more.

MDRS Crew 201 – MEx-1

Today the crew planned a long and complex activity, a visit to one of the farthest locations of the premises of the hab. A location with mountains and canyons that might be hard for the first time hiker. Our boots got dirty while walking to the horizon and wonder what will we find after the next hill. And what did we find? Well dear reader, this area was a bit farther from the charted maps and we could only have had an idea of how the place looked like.

What is the reason for us to explore? Well it is the reason for existence itself: Understand the meaning of life and what is our part in all of it. Additionally, we needed to get more soil samples for the greenhab project. We have realized that understanding the complexity of the terrain at the farthest regions of the hab premises could help us with the extended scope of the Radio Access Network idea for a SmartHAB. What is the reason behind this? Extended network access can support future crews’ safety knowing their location, health status and spacesuit problems. Safety is number one priority.

Due to Mars complex weather conditions, Mission Control mentioned (in several occasions really) that we would have a real hard time hiking. Road conditions were considerably harder than we would have expected and we left our rovers a little earlier than anticipated. We started hiking in a different location than planned and things got quite interesting from the very beginning. We went up and down muddy hills, getting farther away from our starting point making new paths as we went up the mountains. Destination? Copernicus, one of the furthest charted regions in our hab going through a place known as The Moons.

Throughout our hike we were witness of dramatic scenery changes. We were getting far away from our home but closer to our goal. Nothing was more exciting and comforting than finding the road that we were looking for. At that instance we were a bit tired but our morale and our spirit of adventure were as strong as ever. And this is
understandable, we were so far from the rovers that we could not hesitate for even the shortest instant.

It wasn’t until we made it to the farthest location of the Yellow Moon that we realized something exciting: we went to a zone that is not heavily explored and of course new for us. Sure, it was identified in the map but we know not of another crew that walked around it. This was confirmed by our Positioning System that we joyfully checked while getting back at the hab.

Without a doubt, this is one of the most exciting days of the Mex-1 mission. This was the day we discovered The Far Side of the Moons.

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Field Season #18

About The MDRS

The Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert was established by the Mars Society in 2001 to better educate researchers, students and the general public about how humans can survive on the Red Planet. It is the second Mars analogue habitat after the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station was established in 2000.

Over 200 crews of six-person teams have lived in 1-2 week field visits at MDRS to simulate life on the Martian surface. Researchers and students alike have explored the Mars-like terrain in the area surrounding the station in full “spacesuits”, maintained the station’s systems, grown plants in the GreenHab to support themselves and even recycled their waste water.

Our activities at MDRS are not only about informing the public, but also conducting real research to bring humanity that much closer to the reality of human exploration on the planet Mars.

Annual field seasons at MDRS run approx. October through May. Anybody can apply to be on a crew, and we also need volunteers to help with the project.